NHL Season 08-09

[Brill Weave]

That was one of the softest goals I've ever seen scored on Fleury.

[Flarega]

That guy sure picked the right time to get the 1st and 2nd goals of his career.

[Bregor]

Detroit's getting pretty damn lucky, the Penguins shot (I think from Crosby) off the post bounces all the way back through the crease, off Osgood's leg and out the other side. Then Zetterberg plays goalie (again) and Detroit answers back with another soft goal. These teams are playing each other so evenly and so well, and it's just not showing up on the scoreboard for Pittsburgh.

That was a pretty weak goal on Fleury's part, but I blame Scuderi for not closing in on Abdelkader after Gill swats the puck away there. He never should have gotten that shot off.

[Judai]

The Penguins had twice as many Power Plays as Washington. There is no reason you can give to explain that other then horrible Reffing or some sort of conspiracy to get Pitt back in the finals. Pitt should be sitting at home but the Refs gave them 2 games with horrible penalty calls in Late 3rd periods and OTs. Pitt fans really can't cry about a few bad calls against them now.

[Sepukku]

Both of Detroit's goals the NBC commentary says there should've been a penalty on Detroit. The first, slight interference which I probably wouldn't have called, but the stick slash is ridiculous. Any Bettman loves crosby / referee bias should be done for the whole series.

On a related note, I wouldn't be surprised to see more strict rules on non-goalies covering the puck in the crease in the future. 2 straight games Zetterburgs layed on the puck in the crease.

On a related note, I could've caught that third goal. I don't pretend to be a pro, it'd probably be 10-1 right now if I was in net for the Pens, but I would've for sure caught that puck on the 3rd goal. It had an arc on it for christ's sake. 40 MPH, tops. Like middle school baseball players tossing the ball back and forth. That was only slightly, slightly less pathetic than Ward's goal allowed against us.

[Bregor]

Fracas time, didn't think you had it in you Malkin.

[Flarega]

Good game. Again the score didn't show how close it was. Pens need to get better acquainted with the back of the net instead of the posts.

[Ivaden]

Despite being down 2-0, I'm not really worried about how the Penguins are playing. It's honestly just bad luck and bad bounces that've kept us off the score sheet. Guerin hit the post twice on for sure goals.

I wonder if Zetterburg will be in net for game three.

[Ace-o-fire]

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4...3823323522.gif

[Ishido]

It was good play today by Zetterberg, he did nothing against the rules. In the overhead angle you could clearly see the puck not covered by him.

Also:

(NEW for 2005-06) A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime, shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major for fighting, a ten minute misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. In addition, the player's coach shall be fined $10,000 -- a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.

19:41 PIT Evgeni Malkin : Instigator - 2 min

Another closely played game. I thought the Wings outplaying the Pens in the second was the difference, and Abdelkader with a goal that shouldn't have happened for several reasons (hi defense, hi fleury) kind of secured it.

edit: With the precedent set in the second round (Walker, Ducks) and with Malkin being Malkin close to 0% of a suspension.

[Selamis]

Malkin won't be suspended, I'm calling the NHL's bluff on that one.

Edit: The espn annalysis of the second goal:

John Buccagross: And here's Hossa, slash, slash, leading to a goal. That's just extra effort on his part, he really wants to win a cup.

Matthew Barnaby: I didn't think that that should have been a penalty, the ref let them play through it....

Above paraphrased, but come on. One guy clearly sees slashes that lead to a broken stick and bonehead Barnaby says it's a good call being no penalty. Can we please stick to people that know what they are talking about, and only have Barry Melrose giving reviews. Barnaby wouldn't know his left skate from his right one.

[Bregor]

bonehead Barnaby

He is pretty bad, I hated him as a player and only slightly less so as an analyst. Is Barry Melrose busy with something else? WTF Sportscenter...

About the instigator penalty, I'm guessing they'll change it to roughing or something to keep Malkin in the mix for game three. In truth, I don't think he should be suspended based on what happened on the ice, but the letter of the rulebook is pretty clear, as Ishido quoted. Should be an interesting day for Bettman tomorrow.

Also, people love to criticize the NBC broadcasts, but it's really only Mike Milbury. I like Mike Emrick and Eddy Olczyk calling the games, and I've always loved Panger. As a whole, I think their coverage has been good.

Sure got that .gif up of Abdelkader's goal quickly, lol.

[Ivaden]

It was good play today by Zetterberg, he did nothing against the rules. In the overhead angle you could clearly see the puck not covered by him.

If this was in response to what I said about Zetterberg, I wouldn't argue that today should've been a penalty at all. Nothing wrong with what he did. Yesterday, sure, but not tonight. My statement was more a joke about him always being there to stop what could've been a goal lol. But then again, he is one of the better defensive forwards in the league for a reason.

Adjustments for Tuesday have to be on the defensive end. As much as I like Scuderi and I'm "okay" with Gill (but I would be incredibly shocked if he was back next year, pretty sure he's UFA?), they don't need to be paired together. Sure it worked in the first three rounds against the offensive threats, but they're both way too slow together against Detroit. Put Gill with Letang, Scuderi with Eaton, Orpik with Gonchar.

Another thing I'm wondering about the offseason, do we/can we sign Guerin for at least another year? And Fedotanko, I hope he comes back. He said it in an interview after sweeping Carolina that he much prefers playoff hockey and admits to not being as good in the regular season, but hell if he hasn't turned it up tenfold in the playoffs compared to his play in the regular season. Going to the finals with Pittsburgh, I'd hope if he was re-signed he would realize he needs to play at this caliber the entire season because it will lead to him playing the kind of hockey he wants.

[Bregor]

NHL already rescinded the instigator penalty on Malkin, Steve Levy and Melrose just reported it from Detroit, lulz.

[Ivaden]

Yeah, just came to post that. Can't say I'm surprised, but can't say I'm unhappy either for obvious reasons. According to the NHL.com article, I can honestly understand without my Penguins goggles why though. He wasn't trying to send a message which apparently is what the rule is really for, he was just protecting Talbot after he poked Osgood and Osgood flopped like a fish out of water.

[Gynin]

I don't know if Guerin will stay. Although I don't have much to base off his attitude towards money, but looking over all the teams he's bounced around with and the way the final is going, no cup? No reason to stay, is my feeling on it.

On Ruslan I hope he'd except getting paid less because 3.5m (I think that's it) for just being a playoff contender is steep especially when it looked like the playoffs were a no go in the middle of the season. I'm pretty sure Satan is done with the Pens, and Petr Sykora might as well be done in the NHL. Satan's money needs to go Scuderi's way because he's been by far our best Defensive D-man. Gill can go f himself, he's too slow and he gets beat to the puck in corners by players with average speed. And my patience with Gonchar's defensive play is starting to reach nil.

Willing to trade Marc Andre Fleury, any takers? Don't look at his salary please. We are going to correct this error by slapping Ray Shero for letting the orange Rick James aura Fleury has on that confuses many broadcasters and executives here in Pittsburgh. We'll trade him for a bag of chips and some french onion dip.

[Ivaden]

At the price Satan is being paid now, I wouldn't expect him to be back either, and as much as I like Sykora, I agree that he's done as well. I forgot Scuderi is a free agent after this year, too, which means someone has to not come back for him, he's too good to lose.

I disagree about trading Fleury, as hard as his play recently is making me argue that. It's hard to say he shouldn't have stopped that 5 mph shot tonight and as a professional he should expect the puck to come at any time, but that puck never should've stayed on Adbelkdledkeder's stick. I want to say his amazing games offset shitty games, but I just don't know. What we need is a good back-up goalie to make him realize his ass needs to step it up. Remember how well he played after Garon came? He played incredible, but now that Garon is probably not so threatening to him, we're where we are now. I'd almost say bring up John Curry as back-up full time next year, but god he is small as fuck in the net.

[Selamis]

Willing to trade Marc Andre Fleury, any takers? Don't look at his salary please. We are going to correct this error by slapping Ray Shero for letting the orange Rick James aura Fleury has on that confuses many broadcasters and executives here in Pittsburgh. We'll trade him for a bag of chips and some french onion dip.

Trade you a Cristobol Huet for Marc Andre Fleury, as well as a bag of chips! Seems you guys in Pittsburgh with the free agents have as likely a scenario as we do in Chicago....who to sign and who to let go. Early rumors were that the Hawks were gonna let Havlat go and resign Khabibulin to then trade to another team for 2 players. Papers yesterday said that Havlat's agent and Dale Tallon have started talks and that Khabi is likely to be let go. We have a few other free agents to deal with but not signing Havlat as a number one priority would just be stupid.

[Gynin]

At the price Satan is being paid now, I wouldn't expect him to be back either, and as much as I like Sykora, I agree that he's done as well. I forgot Scuderi is a free agent after this year, too, which means someone has to not come back for him, he's too good to lose.

I disagree about trading Fleury, as hard as his play recently is making me argue that. It's hard to say he shouldn't have stopped that 5 mph shot tonight and as a professional he should expect the puck to come at any time, but that puck never should've stayed on Adbelkdledkeder's stick. I want to say his amazing games offset shitty games, but I just don't know. What we need is a good back-up goalie to make him realize his ass needs to step it up. Remember how well he played after Garon came? He played incredible, but now that Garon is probably not so threatening to him, we're where we are now. I'd almost say bring up John Curry as back-up full time next year, but god he is small as fuck in the net.

I thought the same way last season when he was injured and came back, and Conklin almost single handedly kept the team in contendation during that time. But the way our cap room is there isn't really a way for us to keep a decent back up at all times to make Fleury understand he's not all that. I thought Therrien was part of Fleury's problem based on their history that started in good ol' Wilkes-Barre, but seriously his play in the whole playoff this year is just sad, really really sad. And everytime a goal is scored off his ass in the finals I'm going to drink a case of beer to drown out the horror. I'm trying really hard not to go off on how bad he is playing the puck and when the play is behind the cage.

Trade you a Cristobol Huet for Marc Andre Fleury, as well as a bag of chips! Seems you guys in Pittsburgh with the free agents have as likely a scenario as we do in Chicago....who to sign and who to let go. Early rumors were that the Hawks were gonna let Havlat go and resign Khabibulin to then trade to another team for 2 players. Papers yesterday said that Havlat's agent and Dale Tallon have started talks and that Khabi is likely to be let go. We have a few other free agents to deal with but not signing Havlat as a number one priority would just be stupid.

I would have figured Khabi would have stayed since his performance has been above par lately (especially for him), I'm not sold on Huet his first start was awful and he stepped up the second game, but we have the same exact scenario with Fleury. I want a consistent netminder, not a makes huge saves and lets the silly junk in.

[Ishido]

I actually would have been against a Malkin suspension, if Detroit won the series it would not have felt nearly as well-earned. I disagree with trading Fleury. He is a good goalie and most of all is still young. There is a good chance that inconsistencies he has right now will be ironed out with experience and age. A good backup would probably be a good step, but then again I'm used to Detroit's rotating goalies outside of the playoffs.

edit: since we're talking about goalies how about that Osgood eh? Achilles heel indeed, and only priced at 1.4 mil.